1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer-implemented management of fulfillment services and, more particularly, to management of inventory fulfillment services.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to offer customers a variety of items readily available for delivery, many merchants (whether engaging in electronic or conventional “brick and mortar” commerce) hold various quantities of such items within inventory facilities. Keeping items in inventory may serve to buffer variations in customer demand or a manufacturer or distributor's ability to supply various items. For example, different items offered for sale by a merchant may have different manufacturer lead times. Holding quantities of such items as inventory may enable a merchant to offer consistent availability of these items to customers despite the different lead times.
However, in some circumstances, holding inventory may present various costs or disadvantages to a merchant. For example, inventory storage facilities may be expensive to provision and maintain, particularly for smaller merchants who may not be able to efficiently and profitably distribute the fixed costs of such facilities across a limited quantity of inventory. Moreover, should the need arise, scaling an inventory system to accommodate increased demand or volume may be an expensive proposition requiring substantial investment in technology, facilities and/or staffing.
A merchant's holding of its own inventory may also present disadvantages to customers. As electronic commerce grows in popularity, many merchants increasingly list their offerings along with other merchants via electronic marketplaces that provide a common interface through which customers may search for items and place orders. However, if different merchants are ultimately responsible for fulfilling their own respective orders through such a marketplace, the customer's ordering experience for a given item may vary considerably depending on the merchant from which the item is ordered. For example, a merchant that has little skill or poor processes for order fulfillment may be slow to ship an item, may ship the wrong item, may deliver damaged goods, or may otherwise create a negative customer experience. Such a negative experience may reflect not only on the merchant from which the customer ordered, but also on other merchants in the electronic marketplace, possibly decreasing customer confidence in the marketplace itself.
In addition, individuals, small merchants such as resale shops, or other entities may have single units of items or small quantities of possibly heterogeneous items, possibly but not necessarily used items, which they wish to sell via an electronic commerce channel. Conventional electronic commerce channels that allow customers to list items for sale may require a separate listing process to list each item with the electronic commerce channel, and require the selling customer to handle most or all aspects of shipping each sold item to the particular customer that purchases the item. For example, if an individual wants to list twenty items for sale via an electronic commerce channel, the individual may have to complete twenty different listing processes, one to list each item, and then the individual may potentially have to make as many as twenty separate trips to a carrier or delivery service drop-off to ship the items to fulfill orders or requests for the items. The individual may also have to create shipping labels for each package shipped.